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Serious sleep issues~

I understand that it is normal for infants to wake throughout the night and want to nurse for a multitude of reasons but I've never heard of this : My 9 month old has gone from waking every 2 hours (which was difficult enough), to waking every hour and sometimes every 20 minutes throughout the entire night! She doesn't fully wake, we co sleep and she just wants to nurse to get back to sleep which she does within a few minutes. Unfortunately though, I am not surviving well on this pattern. I fear bedtime and my body seems to have developed a stress response towards sleeping. It wont relax when i lie down, no matter how tired I am, bc it knows I will just be woken within a few minutes. I've tried offering more frequent feedings throughout the day, tylenol for teething but neither have helped reduce these extremely frequent night wakings. What could be going on with her? I know she has a lot more to process these days what with all the new skills she's picking up right now but could I be missing something? Is there ANYTHING I can do to keep her from waking SO often? I'd be grateful for just a 3 hour block of sleep at this point. Has anyone else experienced this and how did you manage it?

Re: Serious sleep issues~

BTW, I've also tried sleeping in another room with a monitor thinking that if maybe she wasn't right next to me and couldn't smell me she wouldn't want to nurse SO often. That didn't work and I found myself having to get up MANY times until I finally gave up and stayed in bed with her.

Re: Serious sleep issues~

That sounds really rough. I'm sorry Could she possibly be sick? Or teething? Maybe take her to the doctor to rule out an ear infection or something. I find ibuprofen works better for teething than Tylenol, so you might try that if you think teething is a possibility. Other than that, my son went through a stage of waking 6 or 7 times a night when he was about 7-8 months old. It was absolutely brutal and I never did figure out why (don't think there was a real reason, per se), but he grew out of it after a month or so. It won't last forever. I'm sorry though. It is really tough when you're in the middle of it

First-time mama to Joshua, 10/29/11. 38 months ; now trying to wean. for 14 months; now finished with pump weaning!

Re: Serious sleep issues~

Maybe you should browse around in the sleep forum. Read the sleep rambles thread. I think you'll find exactly the same thing you're going through in there.

I would probably try the doctor as well. And try ibuprofen at the beginning of the night.

Lilah did that from around 9 months to around 14 months. It was really hard. I went to bed with her at 7 pm and stayed there with her all night. She woke every 45 to 90 minutes. I'm not sure why it stopped, but I think it started after an ear infection.